[tsahyt]

The beauty about Linux (and a lot of well-maintained open source software) is that security flaws are usually patched rather quickly -- with the possible exception of the disaster that is X, but Wayland is coming along nicely.

[ekianjo]

> patched rather quickly

For offline equipments, not sure how likely they would be patched, though.

[gambiting]

I don't know why you are getting downvoted - ATMs are never connected to the Internet directly, they connect to the bank either using a built in modem(yes, the dial-up variety) or their own VPN systems. So it's extremely unlikely, if not just impossible for them to be downloading their own software updates, unless they are published by the bank for the machines to download.

[e12e]

There have been a few bugs that have been patched, but turned out to have been introduce quite a while before they were reported and patched. That doesn't mean they were not found long before they were reported/fixed, though.

I agree that free software seems to be very much responsive to disclosed issues though, and while many vendors (perhaps especially Microsoft) have gotten a lot better lately, the image remains (rightly or not) that closed source companies move (too) slow when it comes to patching security issues.

(Part of that is quality control, patching one bug tends to introduce/expose more)